[OS X TeX] installing from TeXLive

[Christopher Menzel]

>> Yes -- and note that some folks do use traditional unix  
>> filesystems on their Macs, esp in environments where they have to  
>> rsync with non-Mac unix machines that might have files and dirs  
>> that differ only in case.  Is there any reason why Apple clobbered  
>> case-sensitivity?  From my largely uneducated perspective, it  
>> doesn't seem to have been a good choice.
>
> Because 99+% of Mac OS X users were migrating from Mac OS 9 and  
> earlier, which displayed the same case-preserving-but-not-case- 
> sensitive behavior that is the default in Mac OS X. (BTW, I don't  
> particularly like it either!)

I suspect migration was indeed a major component of the decision --  
though I'm  not sure Apple correctly anticipated just how many of us  
would move to OS X from the Linux/*BSD world.  That said, Mac  
marketshare suggests that the bulk of current OS X users are former  
Windows users, where not even the shell is case sensitive.  So from  
that perspective, at least, it seems to be have been a reasonable  
decision.

Chris Menzel



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